This Day Trivia - March 13th

Events

2002 President Bush When asked about Osama bin Laden, Bush responds, "So I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you."

1989 Cyanide Scare All fruit from Chile is quarantined by the FDA after finding cyanide in two grapes.

1986 Halley's Comet The European satellite Giotto goes within 335 miles of the nucleus of the comet.

1968 An Army nerve gas test kills 6,000 sheep outside of Salt Lake City due to a shift in wind direction; if it had shifted the other way…

1964 A woman, in Queens N.Y., dies after being chased and repeatedly stabbed for 30 minutes while 38 neighbors watched and did nothing; they didn't want to get involved.

1930 Pluto The discovery of the dwarf planet is announced; it had been discovered from pictures taken earlier by the Lowell Observatory in Arizona.

1791 The Rights of Man, by Thomas Paine, is printed in response to Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France.

1781 Uranus The planet is discovered by Sir William Herschel. It was the first planet discovered by telescope.

Births

1960 Adam Clayton Irish bass guitarist, with U2 Sunday Bloody Sunday (1983) and With You Or Without You (1987, #1).

1957 Dana Delany American actress. TV: China Beach (Lt. Colleen McMurphy).

1939 Neil Sedaka American singer, songwriter. Music: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do (1962, #1) and Laughter in the Rain (1965, #1).

1914 Edward Henry O'Hare d. 1943 U.S. naval aviator, for whom Chicago's O'Hare airport is named. In 1942 he shot down five incoming Japanese bombers saving the USS Lexington from certain destruction, for which he received the Medal of Honor. He died in action.

1913 William Joseph Casey d. 1987 CIA director (1981-87).

1911 L. Ron Hubbard d. 1986 (Lafayette Ronald Hubbard), American author, founded the Church of Scientology and author of Dianetics.

1855 Pervical Lowell d. 1916 American astronomer. He predicted the existence of the planet Pluto, although it wasn't discovered until 1930. He also popularized the idea that intelligent life had constructed canals on Mars - This was later proved to be false.

1781 Johann Rudolf Wyss d. 1830 Swiss author. Writings: The Swiss Family Robinson (1813). He also wrote the Swiss national anthem.

1733 Joseph Priestley d. 1804 English clergyman, scientist, discovered the pencil eraser (1770) and oxygen (1774).

1615 Innocent XII d. 1700 Italian religious leader, 242nd Pope (1691-1700).

???? Donald Duck (Donald Fauntleroy Duck), American cartoon character, star of numerous animated films.

Deaths

2006 Maureen Stapleton b. 1925 American Oscar-Tony-Emmy-winning actress. Film: Reds (1981, Oscar) and Cocoon (1985). TV: Queen of the Stardust Ballroom (1975).

1988 John Holmes b. 1944 (John Curtis Estes), American porn star, died of AIDS. He appeared in over 2,000 pornographic films. His life was the basis for the films Boogie Nights (1997) and Wonderland (2003).

1938 Clarence Darrow b. 1857 American lawyer, defender of John Scopes in the famous Tennessee Monkey Trial (1925).

1937 Elihu Thomson b. 1853 English-born engineer and inventor. He was awarded over 700 patents and invented the recording wattmeter used in electricity usage meters.

1906 Susan Brownell Anthony b. 1820 woman's rights leader.

1901 Benjamin Harrison b. 1833 23rd U.S. President (1889-93). His support of spending programs during his term earned Congress the name "The Billion Dollar Congress." He was the first U.S. President to a attend a major league baseball game (June 6, 1892 Cincinnati beat Washington 7-4).

1886 Austin Flint b. 1812 American physician, pioneer in heart research. He co-founded Buffalo Medical College.